Five-year plan to make us all more active

OLDHAM Council will consider a five-year plan to get thousnds of Oldhamers more fit and active.

The council’s Sport and Physical Strategy 2013-2018, to be discussed by the council’s Cabinet on Monday, aims to get more people playing sport and exercising regularly.

The strategy includes new high-quality leisure facilities in Oldham and Royton, offering a new plan for sport and physical education in local schools, and developing programmes to help talented young athletes and exeercise at work.

An Active Oldham consortium of key local partners hopes to boost local health and wellbeing by having more than 14,000 local over-16s doing at least 30 minutes of sport or exercise a week by 2018.

On top of this they expect to have up to 7,500 over-16s exercising at least three times a week.

Oldham has been named a “priority borough” by Sport England, which recognised that Oldham had excellent activity and initiatives but big challenges too.

Councillor Steve Bashforth said: “The Olympics demonstrated the power sport can have in inspiring people to be active and to have a strong sense of pride. Through this co-operative approach with partners Oldham could become a more productive, healthier and aspirational place.”